Main Menu

“Where Is the Fourth Amendment Docket?”

I recently put up a post by that title over at SCOTUSblog. From the introduction:

Next Monday, the Court will hear oral argument in City of Ontario v. Quon, a Fourth Amendment case on employee rights in text messages. Notably, Quon is one of only two Fourth Amendment cases to be decided this Term. And the other Fourth Amendment case, Michigan v. Fisher, was at best a minor footnote: Fisher was a per curiam summary reversal, meaning that the Court thought the case was so easy that reversed without merits briefing or oral argument. The presence of only two search and seizure cases is a bit surprising. In the previous Term, for example, the Court handed down decisions in five such cases. The dearth of cases raises a question: What happened to the Court’s Fourth Amendment docket?